Executive changes at Home Depot: New marketing vp named, CIO departs

Aveteran of Coca-Cola and the marketing mind behind Hasbro’s North American toy and game sales will serve as Home Depot’s senior vp and chief marketing officer.

Frank Bifulco took over the spot on April 28. He will report to Craig Menear, Home Depot’s executive vp-merchandising, according to the company.

John Ross, who served as the interim head of the company’s marketing department while performing his regular duties, will remain in his role of vp-advertising.

Bifulco will spearhead strategic marketing initiatives of Home Depot, along with category marketing and brand development.

Bifulco most recently served as chief customer officer and president of Hasbro North America Sales. In this role, he was responsible for account management and for setting the overall customer strategy and go-to-market approach for driving Hasbro’s toy and game sales in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Previously, Bifulco served as the chief marketing officer for Timberland. From 1994 to 2000, he was the senior vp-marketing for Coca-Cola North America, responsible for brand management and for volume driving consumer marketing plans across the United States and Canada. He started his professional career at Procter & Gamble.

Bifulco was unavailable for an interview for this article.

The move was the second major executive announcement at Home Depot last month. On April 3, the company announced that Bob DeRodes, executive vp and chief information office would leave the company by the end of the year.

According to the retailer, DeRodes will continue to be responsible for Home Depot’s information technology infrastructure until his departure. The company, meanwhile is in the process of seeking a successor, who will be assisted by DeRodes during the transition.

DeRodes has been with Home Depot since February 2002. He has helped develop and build the company’s current IT infrastructure, overseeing initiatives including self-checkout, continual point of sale upgrades and BEAR, the company’s back-end automated receiving system.

In addition, under DeRodes’ leadership, Home Depot implemented SAP Finance, and opened the Austin Technology Center in 2005, which provided backup systems and security for the company’s data management infrastructure.